Recently, OCPA released a new memo (a short read, with visuals) detailing the success of Oklahoma’s income tax cuts since 2005. Couple this with Oklahoma’s data from the “How Money Walks” project (click here for the map, click on Oklahoma, then notice how the trajectory of adjusted growth income – AGI – moving in and out of the state swings upward for Oklahoma starting in 2005).

Then the correlation becomes very strong, indeed: as income tax cuts have helped propel Oklahoma’s private-sector economy, overall state tax revenues have risen to record highs. (See more in the latest issue of Perspective.)

This also matches up with data from the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Rich States, Poor States, which shows no-income-tax states with higher rates of tax revenue growth than high-tax states.

In the recently ended fiscal year, Oklahoma set new record highs for total tax collections, including record highs for both income tax and sales tax collections. This, despite a total reduction of 20 percent in the state’s personal income tax rate since 2005, and despite natural gas prices – and natural gas revenues – currently far below past highs.

Former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards is the author of a new book that’s stirred considerable discussion about the present state of politics and governance.

The book, The Parties Versus The People, is available on Amazon.com and in book stores.

The publisher’s description of the book:

America’s political system is dysfunctional. While this is a widely held view, it is a problem that—so far—has proved intractable. After every election, voters discover yet again that political “leaders” are simply quarreling in a never-ending battle between the two warring tribes, the Republicans and Democrats. In this critically important book, a distinguished statesman and thinker identifies exactly how our political and governing systems reward intransigence, discourage compromise, and undermine our democracy. He then describes exactly what must be done to banish the negative effects of partisan warfare from our political system.

As a former congressman, Mickey Edwards witnessed firsthand how important legislative battles can devolve into struggles not over principle but over party advantage. He offers graphic examples of how this problem has intensified and reveals how political battles have become nothing more than conflicts between party machines. Edwards’s solutions—specific, practical, fair, and original—show the way to break the stranglehold of the political party system. The Parties Versus the People offers hope for a fundamental renewal of American democracy.